Thursday, March 22, 2007

Portrait #41

To stand forever in the middle, or bepart of the usual episodes of amnesia.Time in the dark, I find stones to throw, like wordsspoken in my sleep. You can’t be afraid of thunder,though I, at times, fear for my public image.It’s easy prey for change, not being safe orsecure in a world of falling water. Sterlingsilver cups, journeys up or down the river.The meaning still isn’t clear, though in the endit doesn’t matter, chance being of stronger substancethan intention, and swimming a way of life.

NYDC BLUES: How I Tried To Escape The Sick World Of Poetry (1995)

New York: it was where I did my first poetry slam. It was where I began to get my work published regularly. It was where I first appeared on national television. It was where I fell truly in love for the first time. It was where for the first time in my life I felt I was in a city where I belonged. It was also where, after having cast off the last vestiges of my youthful insanity, I vowed to give up poetry completely.

About Me

José Padua’s poetry and fiction have appeared in Bomb, Salon.com, Exquisite Corpse, Another Chicago Magazine, Unbearables, Crimes of the Beats, Up is Up, but So Is Down: New York's Downtown Literary Scene, 1974-1992, and many other journals and anthologies. He has also written features and reviews for NYPress, Washington City Paper, the Brooklyn Rail and the New York Times. He has read his work at the Lollapalooza Festival, CBGBs, the Knitting Factory, the Black Cat Club, the Public Theater, the Washington Project for the Arts, and many other venues.